Nintendo closing in on 20 million Switch consoles sold, but numbers are starting to drop off

Nintendo has an incredibly successful console generation with the Switch. The console has smashed records all over the place and is nearing 20 million in total sales. All of that sounds pretty impressive but the numbers have started to slide over the last quarter or so. After reporting 2.93 million and 7.23 million units sold in the previous two quarters, sales have slowed down to 1.88 million in the most recent three-month period. That number is still quite high, especially considering it’s the slowest time of year for console sales and the company hasn’t been cranking out as many big-time titles. However, Nintendo is going need an amazing holiday this year in order to meet its sales projections.

Clearly the middle of the year isn’t going to push as many units off the store shelves, but Nintendo also hasn’t had titles like Super Mario Odyssey and Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild to drive console sales as of late. Having said that, we have seen the likes of Octopath Traveler, Fortnite and Mario Tennis Aces. All amazing games, but those titles certainly aren’t going to draw new gamers to the platform the way the aforementioned heavy hitters did.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze moved 1.4 million units while Mario Tennis Aces sold about 1.38 million copies. Labo is also doing quite well with more than 1.39 million units since its launch a few months ago.

Nonetheless, the Switch is still making serious money for shareholders. Clearly destroying the disappointing sales numbers for the Wii U, Nintendo reported around $1.5 billion in revenue which is a significant improvement year-over-year. This quarter last year Nintendo reported $1.37 billion in revenue. Operating profits have almost doubled by comparison to Q1 2017. In other words, shareholders are happy, despite the fact that Nintendo is going to have step it up a notch to hit the 20 million in Switch sales it’s protecting by April 2019.

Have no fear though, some serious titles are on the way like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee. Those titles in combination with the holiday season could easily push Nintendo over the top here, but not quite the way a rock solid release date for Metroid Prime 4 would.

Speaking of Nintendo, PDP announced its GameCube-inspired Wired Smash Pad Pro controller just after Hori dropped its Gamecube controllers. And here’s a hands-on look at the new Anker Switch batteries and the latest Nintendo Labo kit.

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